Kartik Khandelwal

It was six in the evening, and I was watching the entrance of the jail on my right. I advanced my car forward towards the parking lot which was beside the jail building. I turned the car right towards the parking area and park my car beside a red car. I got out of the car and locked it through my car-keys. Then, I looked at the building and thought, “I hope I can find something here today.” I can see the sun about to set behind the building and I had a sense of pride and joy inside. “Imma do it,” I motivated myself. Then, I turned left and walked out the parking lot.

I walked inside the jail, and the first thing to see was a huge reception and a waiting hall. I saw a person in khaki clothes coming towards me with a smile. He had a black wide mustache with a short light beard. He wore a khaki cap too, which completed his jailer look. He looked like a typical Indian and had a black face too. “Greetings, sir.”

“Greetings,” I replied with a smile.

“Inspector Khandelwal, right? There’ve been such a huge amount of rumors about you after that incidence.”

“Which incidence?”

“Shahnawaz left the room in between, and it’s created a ruckus in here lately. Shahnawaz actually is from a terrorist organization, ‘Aatank-e-Khan’, one of the most dangerous organizations nowadays.” He started walking towards somewhere and I followed him all the way. I was interested in what he had to tell me about him.

“Oh.”

“The army caught him in, like, four years ago, in twenty-fourteen. After a year of court cases in the Supreme Court, he’s been given a jail of about eighty-nine years.”

“Whoa,” I said in awe. “Eighty-nine years…”

“And he’s some like fifty today. He got a white beard and all.” He continued giving a whole biography about this man. “He’s been among the quietest prisoner here, but once he gets mad, he can even kill a person in the jail itself, with just a fork. Learned it the hard way.”

“Has he even killed someone while in jail?”

“He was about to kill one, just six months ago, and he’s got his punishment, but nothing more ever since, just like before. But, he roams around like a time-bomb, ready to explode his anger into anybody.”

“Whoa,” I said.

“It’s sometimes very hard to believe that he once used to be a terrorist.”

“Must be hard to handle him, right? You never know when he’d attack.”

“Yes,” He nodded his head in full approval. “That attack also was out of the blue, but that day, the whole jail was shaken by his anger and rage. We can’t even kill him; he provides us valuable information about the terrorism.”

“What?” I said. “Is he still a part of terrorist groups?”

“Yes, and therefore, we let him visit anybody he likes.”

“Whoa,” I exclaimed. “That’s why we have the upper hand against most of the terrorist camps, right?”

“Yes, sir. Whether it’s a journalist, police officer or even army official, they always come here for first-hand information.”

“It means your jail is famous among them, right?”

“Yes,” He replied with a smile. “But, we’ve never had anybody who’s interested in my talks rather than him only too.”

“Information can come from anywhere,” I replied with a smile. “And I think you’re a good man.

“Sure we’re, sir. We serve our nation, after all. We need to have that ‘good man’ looks on our faces.”

In the middle of all such talks, he finally turned left and we entered the corridor which was open at the left and had doors on the right. “I was the ones to guide your investigators too, by the way. They also interrogated in the same room where you will today.”

“So, Imma experience what my associates did yesterday, right?”

“No, Shahnawaz’ different than others.”

“Oh, ok,” I nodded as he stopped, turned right towards a certain room and showed me a hand to go inside. I walked inside hesitantly and saw a person’s back. He was sitting on a chair in front of a table, wearing his usual prisoner’s uniform. I walked towards him and sat on the chair which was kept in front of him. “So, uh,” I started when I was settled.

“I’m Shahnawaz Khan,” He confidently said.

“I’m Kartik Khandelwal,” I replied. “You said that you got some important information regarding The Suiciders, right?”

“Firstly, it’s named ‘The Eye of Suicide’ and not ‘The Suiciders’.”